S ome people think I became a journalist for the fame, fortune and adoring women that inevitably come with the profession and hang on my every word. No, wait. My sides are splitting. There, that's better. Yes, it's given me a few perks (though not as many as people think) huge opportunities to travel (okay, granted) and certainly resulted in meetings that have changed all parts of my life for the better. In reality, it's outrageously tedious and dazzlingly fun in far less than equal measure. I'm hardly set up for life (or even June) and the hours are just plain silly. But one of the main reasons I do this job is for days like this weekend...
Where else could I sit and watch Spock talk with Mal Reynolds, Jimmy Olsen, John Crichton, one of the Goonies and boxing legend Henry Cooper? Being the unrepentant geek that I am, I still get gobsmacked at these meetings that seem more like a cosmic crossroads of realities than a Green Room at a convention in Milton Keynes for (http://www.collectormania.com/) It's like seeing Barack Obama shopping at your local store while he's chatting with the Red Hot Chilli Peppers and your teacher from school... it's the kind of bizarre colliding that tunnel-building scientists in Switzerland would consider TOO scary. And yet it's both satisfying and weird to see actors actually mingling and each being gently and genuinely intimidated in the presence of their peers. At one point, Nathan Fillion sees a photo that's been taken of him with Leonard Nimoy. 'Legend!' he smiles. No argument there.
It was a reasonably successful weekend. The only interview done was with Mr Fillion, who was the charmer he always is and also obliged with a photo-shoot for the forthcoming article, but I also got to have a chinwag with Ben Browder and sort out a proper chat with him in the near future. Mr Nimoy wasn't doing interviews (understandly burned out after two months of Trek promotion) but was a huge and courteous presence for the whole weekend. It all took place at the DONS Stadium in Milton Keynes which will be nice when it's fully finished! I'll be attending another of Showmasters events, the London Film and Comic Con in July and hope to see a whole slew of people there as time allows.
Right. Enough name-dropping and inner-geekiness for now. Articles to write, deadlines to meet and much shaking of head in shame that the BNP managed to spin their way into a European seat representing part of my region. Not sure who I hate more: The BNP fascist leader bully-boys who ran a superbly distracting campaign, the people who voted for them (out of loyalty or idiotically blind protest) or the government for creating a climate in this country where the BNP could ever seem like any alternative.
Then again, in this climate 'Live Long and Prosper...' sounds more like an MP's redict than a Vulcan maxim.
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John is taking part in Project 365. You can see the 'Photo of the Day' below, can link to the P365 by clicking the picture or alternatively go to http://john-mosby-media.blogspot.com/
I don't know if they did run a superbly distracting campaign. I have the BNP leaflet. It says vote BNP to stop 70 million "Muslim Turks" invading the UK. I don't even know what that means. I don't think there are that many people in Turkey, never mind Muslims; it barely even makes sense if you're embedded in a century-old Ottoman Empire mindset. Basically, anyone who voted for these - pardon me - cunts, should be disenfranchised on the basis they're not mentally fit to vote.
Perhaps I'm being unfair to the "my son can't get a job because of all these foreigners" people. But the BNP don't care if you're foreign or national; they care about your skin colour. So I don't think I'm being too unfair.
Anyway, they lost votes. The reason they got in was because people didn't turn out for anyone else. So I retract my last comment, on the post below.
I guess what I'm meaning is that I watched their Party Political Broadcast and thought 'Oh, yes, very polished if entirely and utterly superficial...' (so, pretty much like the main parties' TV efforts) for what was largely a Homeric 'Look over there, a distraction!'
There ARE some genuine issues/controversies that the BNP raise that I think, in ideal conditions, encourage further GENUINE debate and which aren't currently being debated as well as they should be, but let's not kid ourselves that a nice tie and suit makes your average bigotted nut-job anything remotely like Winston Churchill.
Then again, in Germany in the late 30s, the Nazis didn't seize power, they won it. THEN the reality sunk in.
Hmm. I take your point, to an extent, although I think the issues/controversies are mainly around immigration, and I think that's generally an unfounded concern. There's a degree of distraction involved, of course, as the BNP aren't solely concerned with immigration; they're no friends to a significant proportion of people who were actually born here.
I missed the Broadcast they did. Although I was given to think it wasn't too great:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/may/18/charlie-brooker-bnp-racism
I think the BNP seized the opportunity to "ask the right questions", though I don't think they're questions the BNP has answers for or, moreover, questions they give a flying fart about. They managed to get air time riding the whole expenses scandal and the economic downturn in the lead up to the Eurolections. Disproportionately more than their worth.
The BNP's platform is ignorance. It's best weapon is hysteria. It doesn't matter that there aren't 70 million Turkish Muslims on the planet because enough people are ignorant and hysterical, and also disaffected by mainstream politics.
I'd argue that nobody - not a single party - has a mandate in Europe, considering the ludicrously low voter turn-out.
The BNP preys on the fact that there ARE legitimate concerns they can co-opt. There ARE problems with immigration rules (albeit not to Daily Mail quoted degrees), due largely to the fear of being branded racist for ANY critique of a slipshod system. Sure, I'm all for sensible basic border security and even moreso for kicking out any non-citizen who consistently and seriously flouts the law. I think such people are a small (if slightly growing) minority, so it's a matter of scale and sensibility. But the BNP uses the bait and switch on such arguments.
The BNP plays on the victim status and I can't help thinking that far from being 'angered and distressed' over the egg incident, their fearless leader must have LOVED the attack as he could quite legitimately yell an ironic call of prejudice against the police who probably *would* have acted quicker if the target had been anyone else. It wa sa double-standard that fell in the BNP's grateful lap. Those anti-fascism protestors might as well have been his own team.
How do you beat the BNP? Don't bury them in the shadows. Get them (national) front and centre on Question Time and make damn sure you have clever, erudite people ready to tear them to pathetic, humiliating shreds through the power of words and common sense. Hate festers. Lance that boil in the full glare of the spotlight!
On the matter of beating the BNP, I totally agree John. The downfall of the KKK in the US can be largely attributed to Freedom Of Speech. If you drive racism underground, it will spread like a cancer among people who don't or can't think very hard. Put them on the public stage, where their ideas can be debated openly and they'll come out looking stupid and ideologically ugly.